About Pippa Norris
Pippa Norris is the Paul F. McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Vice President of the World Values Survey, and founding Director of the Electoral Integrity Project.
An Anglo-American political scientist and public speaker, she has taught at Harvard for more than thirty years. Her research compares election and public opinion, democracy, political communications, and gender politics around the world. She is the 2nd most cited political scientist worldwide according to Google Scholar.
Recent books include Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit and Authoritarian-Populism (2019 Cambridge UP, with Ronald Inglehart) and In Praise of Skepticism: Trust but Verify (2022 OUP). A new book, The Cultural Roots of Democratic Backsliding, is currently under development for OUP.
Honors and Awards
Her work has been recognized by numerous honors including the election in 2024 as an International Fellow of the British Academy “in recognition of scholarly distinction in the humanities and social sciences,” the 2024 Andorka Rudolf Medal for Social Sciences of the Rajk College for Advanced Studies, Budapest, and the 2023 Ronald F. Inglehart Best Book Award for In Praise of Skepticism, “which makes a substantial and original contribution to theory and/or empirical studies in comparative cross-cultural research”, the 2022 Warren E. Miller Award by APSA to recognize “an outstanding career of intellectual accomplishment and service to the profession in the elections, public opinion, and voting behavior field”, the 2022 Sakip Sabanci International Research Award by Sabanci University, the 2021 Murray Edelman Lifetime Distinguished Career Award by APSA to recognize “a lifetime contribution to the study of Political Communication”, the 2020 Samuel Eldersveld award by APSA, the Charles Merriam Award by APSA for ‘the rigorous application of social science to the art of government’, fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the PSA’s Sir Isaiah Berlin Award for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies, the International Engagement Award, the Brown Medal for Democracy, the Academic Leadership in Political Science award by the Australian Political Studies Association, the Karl Deutsch prize awarded by the International Political Science Association to recognize 'a prominent scholar engaged in the cross-disciplinary research', the Johan Skytte prize awarded with Professor Ronald Inglehart for 'contributing innovative ideas about the relevance and roots of political culture in a global context', the Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council, a 'special recognition' award by the UK Political Studies Association.
Honorary Doctorates have been granted by Edinburgh University, the University of Warwick, Leuphana University, and the University of Bergen.
Other awards include the best book award by the Global Policy Institute (for Cultural Backlash), the George H. Hallett book award for Political Recruitment for making 'a lasting contribution to the literature on representation and electoral systems', the Doris Graber award for the 'best book in political communications' at APSA, and the Virginia Hodgkinson book prize from the Independent Sector.
Pippa Norris being presented with the Karl Deutsch Award, IPSA World Congress, Montreal, 2014
Research
In 2012 she established and directed the Electoral Integrity Project, an independent research project supported by the Australian Research Council and other foundations and partners. In 2021, the project passed on to new Directors, Holly-Ann Garnett and Toby James. The project focuses on why elections fail, why this matters, and what can be done to strengthen integrity.
Other recent research projects include the ESRC-funded TrustGov project, the EU funded TrueDem project, the Global Party Survey, and the ECPR-IPSA World of Political Science Survey, as well as being Vice President of the World Values Survey.
Presenting new research on electoral integrity at the United Nations with Massimo Tommasoli, International IDEA and Maarten Halff, Department of Political Affairs.
Publications
She has published around fifty books. This includes Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit and the Rise of Authoritarian-Populism (with Ronald Inglehart, Cambridge University Press, 2019), Pippa Norris et al Electoral Integrity in America (Oxford 2019), Pippa Norris and Alessando Nai (Eds) Election Watchdogs: Transparency & Accountability (Oxford UP 2017), Pippa Norris Why American Elections are Flawed (Cornell 2017), Pippa Norris Strengthening Electoral Integrity (Cambridge UP 2017) and In Praise of Skepticism: Trust but Verify (OUP 2022) from the ESRC-funded TrustGov project). Her current research focuses on a new book, The Cultural Roots of Democratic Backsliding, for Oxford University Press.
For popular commentary on public affairs, she can be followed on Twitter/X @PippaN15 and through outlets such as the LSE Blog, Vox, and The Conversation. Her work has generated widespread coverage in the news media around the world.
Public service
She has served as the Director of the Democratic Governance Group at the United Nations Development Program in New York and as an expert consultant for many international bodies including the UN, UNDP, UNESCO, UN Women, NDI, the Council of Europe, IFES, International IDEA, the OSCE, the World Bank, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Australian Electoral Commission, and the UK Electoral Commission.
Professional Service
She has served on executive councils for the American Political Science Association (APSA), the International Political Science Association (IPSA), the Political Science Association of the UK (PSA), and the World Values Survey Association.
Within APSA, she has also been Vice-President of APSA and president of the Women and Politics Research Section and the Political Communications Section, the Vice-President and President of the Elections, Public Opinion and Voting Behavior section, and the executive of the British Politics Group and the Representation and Elections Section.
She has also been Co-Founding Chair of the Elections, Parties, and Public Opinion Group (EPOP) of the PSA, and IPSA’s Elections, Citizens and Parties Research Committee.
Prior affiliations & Education
Prior to joining Harvard in 1992, she taught at Edinburgh University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Philosophy (Hons) from Warwick University, and Masters and Doctoral degrees in Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
At Harvard, she teaches two Fall semester classes, on Democratic Backsliding and on the Rise of Authoritarian-Populism, in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She is also affiliated at Harvard with the Government Department, the Minda de Gunzberg Center for European Studies, the Weatherhead Center for Public Affairs, the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, the Ash Center on Democracy, the Carr Center on Human Rights, and the Center for International Development. She can be contacted at Pippa_Norris@Harvard.edu and followed @PippaN15.